No Matter What Happens ...

... the America that we have known and loved will soon cease to be.

It's inevitable and it's coming. Change that is. We elected a man who promised change, a man who promised if elected, to remake America. With the help of Congress and a sizable cadre of unelected, unvetted, and nearly unknown czars, he is doing it.

And it isn't only our president and his Democrat accomplices. Do you recall the summer of 2007 and the tough political struggle over amnesty for illegal aliens? Do you remember the millions of phone calls and faxes and emails to our congressional representatives? Have you forgotten that President Bush was for a bill that he could sign into law that would grant those entering our country illegally, a path to citizenship? Can you picture Lou Dobbs on CNN every night carrying on about the North American Union and how the dollar was going away and would be replaced by a new form of money, the Amero?

This isn't about political party. It isn't about conservative vs. liberal. It's about a radical shift in the way America works. It's about a government in Washington, DC that is muscling its way into every nook and cranny of our lives. It's about Washington, DC vs. the American people.

Sounds crazy, doesn't it?

Yet with each passing day, and each new revelation, or proposal in Congress, it becomes clearer and clearer to me that our economic downturn is not typical, that our government's actions are radical, and that the people making decisions are only telling us half the story. Far too much evidence has emerged to think that everything going on is coincidence. It cannot be detailed here. If you think I'm nuts, please do yourself one favor before you cast me aside. Do your own research on just a few things and see if you don't find yourself scratching your head in wonderment. How about a few questions?

• Why did thousands of banks and mortgage lenders make "toxic" loans to under-qualified borrowers?
• Why did Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and other secondary mortgage market businesses buy up these "toxic" loans from banks?
• Who is Franklin Raines, where did he work between 1999 and 2004, and how much money did he make during those years?
• How come Goldman Sachs received a huge chunk of TARP bailout money and their large competitor, Lehman Brothers, did not? (Hint: How many high level government employees once worked for Goldman Sachs before they came to work for the Federal Government?)
• How can the billions of dollars given to ACORN in the March 2009 Stimulus Package, stimulate the economy?
• Who or what is ACORN anyway?
• Who actually wrote House Bill HR 3200 (the healthcare bill that everyone is up in arms about)?
• Why do we need a national, civilian, quasi-military force?

The above list represents just a few questions of the hundreds that people should be asking.

So, what's coming?

No one can say for sure, of course, but it is evident that when the dust settles from all of this upheaval, the party we call America will be over. Yeah, I said "party." Why? because most Americans have been cruising along now at a pretty good clip at very little personal cost. The payment is about to come due.

Our house is dividing, splitting apart. Jesus said, and Lincoln echoed it during the Civil War, that "a house divided against itself cannot stand."

The two extremes of what may come are:

1. A nationalizing of more and more American industries and a super-sized, big-brother central government (as in the Soviet Union, Cuba, Venezuela, etc.)
2. A civil war (hopefully only with words and declarations and secessions) that leaves us with several smaller countries made up of collections of states.

It is possible that something in-between could emerge, but we sort of already have a mild form of No. 1 now. Some people are calling what we have now a "soft" tyranny.

So, if you have made it to the end of this little blog, you probably have at least somewhat of an open mind. Use it to explore the few questions I posed above.

Grassroots or Astroturf?

Here is a link to the real story (with many great pictures) of what happened when Nancy Pelosi went to Denver on Thursday, August 6th to visit the Stout Street Clinic. About 200 pro-freedom, anti-Obamacare protestors showed up with home-made signs. About 40 supporters of the dastardly plan came to counter-protest. Most of their signs were printed. They had bullhorns. One Obamacare supporter said that folks on their side had to leave because their bus was waiting to take them all to another event.

Which group do you think is organized by outside interests?

Mark Steyn writes about the right kind and the wrong kind of community organizing. He explains the "right" kind of organizing.

"Obama’s a community organizer. We’re the community. He organizes us. What part of that don’t you get?"

Maybe this is what they are planning to do with all of us rabble rousers. Just what is a "resettlement" specialist anyway?

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Our Republic and the Shade Tree Mechanic

I used to be somewhat of a "shade tree mechanic." If you are not familiar with the phrase, a "shade tree mechanic" is one who "attempts" to perform routine maintenance and make minor repairs on his car. Generally, the motive is to try and save money. But sometimes guys, and even gals, just like to tinker. My motive always fell under the saving money category. And I say "attempts" because sometimes the "shade tree mechanic" gets in over his head and ends up costing himself more money than he would have had he just taken the car to the shop in the first place. It's happened to me.

At one time, I somewhat knew my way around my cars. I used to change my own oil and air filter, and flush my own radiator. I have changed disk brakes. I have replaced more than one alternator, a regulator, a water pump, mufflers and tailpipes, and starters. Batteries are fun to mess around with. And then there are all those hoses and belts and cables. I've replaced two radiators, one heater core, and a vacuum-driven windshield wiper motor. I have gapped my own spark plugs and reset the points on my distributor.

I made many a trip to the junkyard in my day, seeking a bargain on a used part to switch with a worn out part. I've made attempts to adjust carburetors with mixed results. With the help and guidance of one friend, I replaced a worn out clutch plate. And with the aid of another, I even removed the valve cover from my car's engine and performed a valve job.

My dad on the other hand was what I call a "spray can mechanic." Dad, it seems, had a spray can for every automotive malady. If I had trouble starting my car Dad would suddenly appear from out of his basement with a spray can containing a magical chemical. "Here, try this," he would say. Squirted in just the right amount, and in just the right place, Dad's miracle spray sometimes actually fixed the problem. At least temporarily.

I'm no mechanic but I have somehow managed to keep my lawnmowers working beyond their normal life-span. By picking up various tricks along the way, I have been able to nurse another summer of service out of mowers that should have given up the ghost.

These days about the only thing I do with my cars is change the windshield wipers, replace the city stickers on the windshield, and the DMV stickers on my license plates. Everything else I leave to the "experts." And it's not because I have lots of spare money, it's because there isn't a whole lot left for the "shade tree mechanic" to do anymore.

Gone are the large dashboard instrument clusters with oil pressure gauges and the like. Today, our vehicle's computer sends us warnings via electronic icons that suddenly light up on our dash. And our only recourse for that pesky "check engine" light is to drive to the shop and have the mechanic plug in his electronic reader. A code pops up and the problem is identified.

If you are the owner of some late model vehicles, you can't even manually check your oil or transmission fluid anymore. Manufacturers are eliminating dipsticks. Your car's computer tells you when your reservoir is low.

When it comes to cars these days, little is left for the regular guy to do. Your toaster breaks, you throw it away and get a new one. Same with vacuum cleaners and blow dryers. Just about all of the smaller appliances and electronic gadgets are throwaways. We are forced to let the experts, with all of their high dollar diagnostic equipment, evaluate and repair.

In the quest to fix an errant television my dad would unscrew the pegboard panel from the back of our television set and remove the vacuum tubes. Then we'd hop in the car, drive to the nearest drug store and test them one by one in that big, yellow vacuum tube tester in the corner of the store. Dad couldn't tell you how a television worked, but he could usually get ours up and running again when it went on the blink.

Some people look down their noses at blue collar workers. Last year, Joe the Plumber clashed with the Obama campaign and came under scrutiny and suffered mockery. And Sarah Palin, then governor of Alaska and Vice Presidential candidate, found herself scorned, ridiculed, and labeled as stupid. These people weren't, you know, educated in the right institutions.

But if a pipe burst in the home of one of these elite critics, the ones that went to Harvard or Princeton or Columbia University, Joe the Plumber could fix it. Those very smart, highly educated snobs would call someone with the skills to diagnose and repair what's broken.

What many fail to realize is that fixing things requires cognitive activity. "Ah, there's your problem," cracks the mechanic, eyeballing that mass of steel and hoses and wires and belts under your hood. Understanding the way things work and making them work again after they break engages the brain. Logic, reason, and rational thought serve the technician.

Today with our dashboard, light-up icons and our throw away televisions, the everyday American is deprived of the cognitive processes that our dads enjoyed. And I say enjoyed because although frustrating, there is little to match the satisfaction that comes from figuring out how to make something work that wouldn't.

Our republic is broken and broken badly. We all know it but we don't know what to do. We rally, carry signs, raise our voices, write letters and make calls. But we still feel helpless.

We don't know how to fix it because we don't know how it really works. Some of us know how it was designed to work, how it used to work a long time ago. And many don't know that, or even care to know. We no longer comprehend how power is really wielded in Washington. Our check and balance system has failed us. Accountability for office holders faded away a generation ago, or more.

We have left our self-governing republic to the experts. We no longer have the cognitive tools to diagnose and fix our problem. As a nation, we flail around in the dark.

Ironic, isn't it? In this age of exponentially expanding knowledge and technology, we employ far less diagnostic capability than our parents. We push a button or flip a switch. If it doesn't work we call somebody or buy a new one.

Can't do that with government.

We aren't nearly as smart as we think we are. Technology leveled the playing field, stripped us of our need for critical thinking and analysis, lulled us to sleep, and is slowly stealing our souls.

Ben Franklin said that our founders gave us "a republic if you can keep it."

We haven't.

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